Williston Middle School to require uniforms starting in the fall

When the 2008-2009 academic year begins on August 26, 2008, all Williston Middle School students will be required to wear school uniforms.
Principal MaryPaul Beall said the decision to adopt a school uniform policy was made based on recommendations from the School Improvement Team, parent surveys and input from faculty and staff. Ms. Beall said other considerations used to make the decision to adopt a school uniform policy included safety concerns, discipline issues, socio-economic balance among students and protection of the learning environment.
"We need to be able to identify Williston students, campus visitors and/or intruders at all times," Ms. Beall said. "We deal with gang-related issues on a daily basis. Uniforms will make it possible for us to monitor and control gang paraphernalia more extensively," she
added.
The new Uniform Policy will be mailed with report cards to rising seventh and eighth grade students. It will also be mailed to rising sixth graders. Additionally, the policy is currently posted on the Williston website
The student uniform at Williston will consist of khaki or navy blue pants, skirts, shorts or skorts; navy, white or yellow collared shirts and school logo shirts and sweatshirts. They can be purchased from the following stores: JC Penney's, Belks, Walmart, Roses, Maxway and Dollar General.

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It's hard for me to understand how any rational person can believe that the clothes someone is wearing can have any affect on their behavior. Someone explain to me how wearing navy blue pants & a white shirt is going to help a student to comprehend math concepts? Please explain to me how the clothes are going to help Johnny with his science project? Will the teachers teach better because there is all that blue and white in the room? Will it assist the teachers in dealing with behavioral issues? Someone please explain to me how this "uniform" is going to make kids safer, will it stop bullets? Will it protect shins from being kicked? Will it stop a kid from getting hit in the face? Will it hide your identity, so someone won't recognize you from being in a rival gang? Will it stop gang members from entering the schools, can't you be in a gang and still enter the school in this "uniform"? Will it stop kids from disrupting the classrooms with verbal and physical outbursts? Will it stop name-calling and bullying? Will it help you get on the bus in the morning or walk toward the school? Will it make you do your homework? Will it make your parents be more involved in your life? Is it somehow going to change the personalities and behaviors of all those kids that are actually causing the problems? How?????? Someone please explain how a set of clothes is going to perform all these wonderful feats!!! The reality is that parents need to parent better and know what their kids are doing. As for the schools, they need to ENFORCE disciplinary action whenever a student is doing anything that is counterproductive to the learning environment and/or harmful to other students. The #1 cause of all school problems if failing to enforce disciplinary action for the students that are causing all the problems! Hell, why not just put cameras all over the school and then video evidence can be shown to parents and law enforcement officials to prove who the trouble makers really are! Only by identifying and dealing with the problem students can anything truly change in the schools of this country, changing clothes will not change the problems!

i think havin uniforms aint gonna stop nothin
we should wear wut eva we want bcuz dat way we can express how we look in so many different ways so havin uniforms aint gonna stop nothin!! datz mii opinion!!

If you cannot afford to go into WalMart and buy a pair of khakis for 10 bucks and a polo for 9...you need a finance class......
If they make it all year on one set of uniforms, you must have some stinky kids.

I have a daughter that is in the sixth grade at Williston and she has had a great year. Her teachers were awesome and the staff is very capable. There are some kids there that are making very bad decision-as with any other Middle school(especially middle school) and I don't know if putting them in uniforms is the answer-but at least they are trying to do something besides complaining and criticizing from the outside. I know alot about what happens at Williston too and my child is a very GOOD child-there are several of them there. They deserve for the administrators to take every avenue available to them to try and improve the environment for their safety. If it doesn’t work-it doesn’t work. I don’t think they will be any worse off than they are now. However, if it does improve the situation, then God Bless them for stepping up and at least trying something.

In the private sector, by law, if uniforms are required, the company must either furnish the uniforms or give the employee a clothing allowance. If the school chooses to require uniforms, they should pay for them.

Could you please provide with the law that says a company in the private sector must provide the uniforms if they require you to wear something, I was fired from a job becasue I didnot have the same color shirt as my co-worker. Please advise me of the Federal and State Law I live in Illinois.
Kevin Hayes
Khayesump@aol.com

There is absolutely no legal requirement for private companies to furnish uniforms or provide a clothing allowance. The Internal Revenue Code does provide a deduction for the cost of required uniforms, but it is very difficult to qualify for the deduction and you can't get it at all if you don't itemize.

If you cannot afford to go into WalMart and buy a pair of khakis for 10 bucks and a polo for 9...you need a finance class.
My job requires me to wear certain clothes....they don't buy them for me either...my childrens JOB is school until they are 18...that is all they are required to focus on...I think I can spring for some clothes..otherwise what..are you willing to buy them designer jeans and shoes...cheaper route is the uniform.

Did you even read the article??? This decision was not made by one person, but from information from a group of people.
I think it's a great idea. The other thing that schools are doing next year that I really like is how they will be getting rid of troublesome gang members. From what I've been told, the first time a student caught with any type of gang related the student and parent will have to sign a contract that they will no longer bring in anything gang related and if they do they will be suspended from school for the rest of the school year. EXCELLENT IDEA. Get those thugs out of the classroom. Maybe we can actually force the parents to deal with their own children instead of pawning them off on someone else

If you could read, it says the decision was based on "based on recommendations from the School Improvement Team, parent surveys and input from faculty and staff".
Doesn't sound like she made it on her own, does it?

Yes, I can read and for your info I am a police officer in this town. It is still taking away their individuality. It doesn't matter what they wear, a kid who wants and needs to act bad will act bad. No, I don't believe it is the schools responsibility to act like these kids parents.
There is the problem it is the parents, they are not holding the parents accountable for their childrens behavior. Start with them and make them accountable and I bet you , you wouldn't have this problem as much. You don't stop to think that some of them don't know that their child is a gang member, and they will dress them the way the school wants them too. Then when the kid shows up to school and does something wrong, how is it the clothes fault for the kid acting stupid and out of control? Clothes doesn't make the kids act dumb , it is the kids who act dumb. Dressing them in the uniforms won't change these kids minds in being a gang member. It won't keep them safer. It won't stop the gang members from getting into the buildings. I don't feel safer just because my kids wear them. I feel sad that my kids are being held accountable for some out of control parents and kids.

It seems like when parents make comments to wway, it is a shame that some of them don't get posted on here. I happen to know a lot of what happens in Williston Middle School. Putting these kids in school uniforms won't change anything. Bad kids are always going to be bad kids, gangs are always gonna find a way into the schools, fights are always going to happen. We live in a bad time in this world with bad things always happening around us. They won't be able to stop the kid from doing bad things. WWAY get a grip post the real comments and quit hiding behind the computer screen.

Can they also wear capris? my daughter even wears them in the fall and winter.If you are gonna get her to wear what yaw want they have to be capris. Or else she will be spending a lot of time in room 1 what ever.

Quote:
"The student uniform at Williston will consist of khaki or navy blue pants, skirts, shorts or skorts; navy, white or yellow collared shirts and school logo shirts and sweatshirts. They can be purchased from the following stores: JC Penney's, Belks, Walmart, Roses, Maxway and Dollar General." [Unquote]
Now...intruders know where to go and buy school coordinated clothes if they want to get into this school :-(
Seems if they really wanted this program to work...these particular clothes would be sold at school requiring a school I.D. (Ya think?)

Like you cannot drive by Williston and see students arriving at school to figure that out? I mean..walk into Best Buy with a blue shirt and khakis...It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out school uniform colors....